The common area at Wonder'neath's studio was used as a theatre rehearsal space during renovations. (Contributed)

Three of the four members brainstorm at a recent meeting. (Contributed)

Melissa Marr, on right, silkscreening with a St. Joseph's A. McKay student.

HALIFAX — A big superhero-styled “POW!” drawn on a chalkboard greets visitors to the North End’s newest art studio and workshop space. The Wonder’neath Artist Collective will show off its renovated digs to the public on Sunday.

Of the group’s four members, three live within two blocks of the Isleville Street studio.

“We walk by all the time to get our kids to and from school. As mother-artists (who) are trying to find time to work, it makes all the difference. Being a block from home means you can get in there every day,” says Heather Wilkinson, a visual artist and one of the collective’s members.

Wilkinson is joined by Melissa Marr, Odessa Spore and Gillian Robinson.

Like superheros, they’ve been busy lately. Refinishing floors, moving walls, running silkscreen classes … and that’s on top of other work commitments, parenting and, in the case of several members, home-schooling.

The four women have been fixing up their new digs – next door to the Barber of Isleville – since they got the keys in February. They want to use the space to both teach and create. There’s a large common area and kitchen for workshops, and two smaller rooms where the visual artists among them can work on their own projects.

A launch event dubbed an Ice Cream and Art Social is set for 1 p.m. this Sunday.

“Each of us have some sort of an ice-cream maker. I don’t know if any of us are experts, but it’s pretty hard to go wrong. Get some fresh ingredients and freeze them up. Add some sugar,” says Wilkinson, before bursting into laughter.

Of course there will also be art.

“Hopefully we’re going to have some art materials up so that we can help people work on something. And we’ll have some of our own work up on the walls for people to look at.”

Wilkinson and Marr work together on numerous school-based art projects. The name Wonder’neath came from a recent project they facilitated at St. Joseph’s-Alexander McKay school.

“We were building this temporary structure that was like a big canopy that had all these little objects of wonder hanging down from it. … Our students would build this piece and we’d set it up and other people would be invited inside and it would kind of create this temporary fantastical space,” said Wilkinson.

“And the name just stuck with us.”

The Isleville space is already scheduled to host Grade 1 students for silkscreening workshops. Ideas for future projects include summer day camps for children, pre-school programming and even night-time slots for adults looking for a temporary studio.

“Sometimes people just need a little extra space and time to kind of pull it all together and this would be a space maybe where people could do that.”

Wonder’neath Artist Collective is located at 2819 Isleville. An Ice Cream and Art Social will take place there 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 30. Free admission.

HALIFAX — Dozens of toddlers swarmed over the site of the former Bloomfield School on Sunday morning. They had to move quick to scrounge up all the chocolate Easter eggs planted there by community-minded parents. Hot sun and 22 degree temperatures brought out more families than expected, plus threatened to melt the treats. “I’m just glad we had enough eggs,” said one mom, who lives on Bloomfield Street. The hunt ended at the playground on the Robie Street side of the property, where parking for strollers was at a premium.

Detail from 2009 Go North! Studio and Gallery Tour map. The full map is available at http://www.gonorthhalifax.com. Above republished with permission.

The fourth Go North! art celebration rolls out Saturday with a quirky map highlighting the studios, galleries and performances taking part this year.

Every possible play on the word ‘north’ is used to make the legend on this map useful: Olde North, Northbound, Central North, North of North, Far North. Cranky Alfred Hitchcock fans could argue for a North by Northwest category, but that would probably just encompass Canada Post’s Almon Street parking lot.

The existing five geographical districts do the job just fine.

Pick up your own copy of the map between 12 and 6 p.m. tomorrow at the BusStop Theatre, at 2203 Gottingen Street. The full schedule for the day contains information about several hands-on workshops, guided tours and live performances. All stops on the tour are free.

The proposed Bloomfield Master Plan suggests residential towers for the south side of Almon Street, where tennis courts and a parking lot now sit.

Consultants and city staff pitched the high-rises on Thursday as a way to pay for most of the $10.6 million required to demolish Bloomfield School, create a green space, and pay for four other buildings dedicated to arts and culture programming.

The biggest tower would be between 10 and 15 storeys high. The smaller tower would be about two-thirds the size. Both would be on the northern edge of the green space.

One speaker at Thursday’s open house meeting suggested the tall buildings, combined with proposed four-storey townhouses along Agricola and Robie streets, would make the green space in the middle an uncomfortable place to relax.

“Do you ever get the sense that they are watching you?” said Paul Hannon, describing the effect of being in a park close to people’s condos.

“You look around and see all these windows,” said Hannon.

Brian Mackay Lyons, an architect hired to produce the draft plan, said that all those eyes will actually help.

“Public spaces are safest when that happens,” said Mackay Lyons.

Without the towers, creating the green space, townhouses and public-use buildings would require $5 or $6 million in city funding. The towers reduce the public subsidy to $1.8 million – an option more in keeping with the city council’s directive that any development be pay for itself.